See More Beauty
Posted on
“Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”. It’s an age old sentiment spoken as a reminder that we each get to choose if what we see is “beautiful” to us. I believe the day has come for women, as a sisterhood, to crack the code of viewing our different bodies as lovely. We alone have the power to begin within and turn the tides of a culture that has spread a dangerous lie about the narrow definition of who is beautiful.
Embracing “body diversity” and broadening beauty’s definition, isn’t about size only. It includes size, but it should also include scars, birth marks, race, height, hair loss, missing limbs and every other physical difference that isn’t currently Vogue cover worthy.
Regardless of what image we see in the mirror, as women we must choose to capture and reframe the thoughts we have about ourselves as we dress and undress for life. Once we wrangle our thoughts and speak truthfully to the woman we see in our mirror, we empower ourselves to reframe our beliefs about other women, their body and be the voice of truth to them. Then we can make real progress that impacts our culture, the media and the next generation of women... today’s girls, who are more focused than ever on meeting a photo shopped magazine standard of beauty and who are busy starving themselves thigh gap thin, all the while learning to hate their young body.
I applaud the voices of influence in social media, online and in fashion who are intent on being a voice of change and truth. I love @gabifresh Gabifresh.com blog, her style and confidence, Chastity @garnerstyle garnerstyle.blogspot.com, Nicolette Mason at nicolettemason.com, Rachel Richardson at lovelyinLA.com and @mariedenee thecurvyfashionista.com. PlusModelMag.com @plusmodelmag makes me smile, Lane Bryant’s #imnoangel campaign is gorgeous and making a bold statement about all women’s sexiness, Kellie Brown at igetdressed.com, Supermodel Emme in all her platforms as she speaks out about beauty and represents a “whole” version of a healthy woman- body,mind and spirit @supermodelEMME and emmenation.com and lastly the global progress with full figured fashion weeks happening in LA, Paris, Berlin, U.K and more.
Progress is being made, but the fact unfortunately remains that the fashion industry still isn’t clothing women size 14+ with equality to the “straight” sizes, despite the fact that 40% of women are considered “plus” size. Only 15% of fashion is made for the average American woman, who just so happens to be a size 14. And what about that “plus size” label? I am looking forward to a day that clothes just start at 2 and it’s understood that they should go through size 32 and regardless of where a woman falls on that spectrum she isn't marginalized or labeled at all.
All three of my sisters and my mother are size 14+. These are the women I love. These are the women I think are the most beautiful. When I decided to open an online fashion retail store, I initially intended it to be for all sizes. Once I began sourcing for fashion through size 24 at all the popular US trade shows and markets and saw how shamefully little there was to choose from, it lit a fire in me. I found it unfair and the unspoken message of who deserves to be clothed, simply unacceptable. I thought, “if it's this hard for me to find what I’m looking for with every sourcing option available to me, how hard must it be for the average size 14+ woman to find great clothes?”
So themoxiefox.com was born, devoted to being another fashion solution for beautiful women with curves. More than that, as I have the opportunity to write and share, my goal is to do my part in changing the message sent to today’s women about their “birthright” to beauty. Being a woman... that’s beautiful. Wearing pretty clothes, regardless of size, should really be a basic right.